.

No prizes for guessing what.

Wish me luck.!!!

Nick

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Hi again guy's

Jason although his remark was said in half jest he actually does have a valid point.

I will go into the reasons of my bearings not being tops tomorrow. But there are considerations to be made that at first may not be totally obvious when buying a second hand machine.

I have had a few issues with my lathe but at the price I paid for it I have no complaints and I am still glad I purchased it. – Buying 2nd hand 'English iron' will so long as it's a good one give one a better machine that is nicer to use no doubt about it.! But then if a 'new for new' comparison was made regarding price it is a one horse race and we are not comparing like for like. – But having said that I nipped into Axminster over the weekend as I was passing and their lathes for what they are (IMHO) are awful, raw, crude and overpriced. – But that seems to be small beer when such a machine is in the skilled hands of many upon this site.

Other considerations are for e.g. Mine (as a lot of second hand machines) came without the following :-

a) A full set of change gears. OK it has a gearbox and many threads can be cut without them. But I still really need some. These are available still from Boxford but at top dollar. …….. They seldom come up on ebay.
b) Spindle bore reducer. ……….. Silly money from Boxford.
c) Fixed and travelling steadies. Again big coins and I have never seen 2nd hand ones.

The above should I think be mentioned when advice is given to 'newbies' requesting information on what machine to buy to get started with. But as I said I am personally glad I bought the machine I did. But that is just me.

To be continued. ………………………………………

Nick

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Morning.

I have for some time had on and off concerns about the headstock bearings. These were first raised a good while ago when noticing that a previous owner (was a school) must have had a play with the adjustment. This was apparent as the adjusting lock nut is meant to be moved with a hook spanner. But I could see that somebody had been using a drift due to indentations in it. The rest of the lathe has virtually no wear upon any surfaces and was just grubby when purchased so I cannot think why anyone would feel the need to play with the bearings. – Some may remember that I had to also replace a cracked plate that the topslide sits upon.

I have at times struggled to get consistent results. One cut would be fine and the next everything would go south. But mostly things would be OK and I would put down these sudden departures down to me having an off day and with some justification my lack of experience. – Things have been like this for some time now.

A while ago when doing an oil change I took the top off and noticed some very small metalic particles in the bottom. These were cleaned out and a magnet placed inside along with the fresh oil.

More recently I started to notice a few more tell tale signs of all not being well. When running at top speed upon starting there would be for half a second as the spindle hit speed a very slight rasping and rattle from the bearings. I was also getting banding and ribbing at all speeds. This became more so as the tool got closer to the chuck and away from the confines of the revolving center in the tailstock. ……. Alarm bell time.!! There was also a slight ticking sound starting to emerge at lower speeds. I would also perhaps make a straight cut and the next one without touching anything would possibly have a taper in it of a few thou.

I did at this point nip the bearings up. Things were slightly better but still not right and the noises continued. It was now that I took the lid off again and investigated for metal particles in the headstock sump. ………… Sure enough they were there (although small) all stuck happily to the magnet. – I had to face reality that I was going to have to put my hand in my pocket and spend some coins on new bearings.

The best price I could get them for was a company in France and they arrived within a few working days. Interestingly the same company also has a UK base but they wanted considerably more money for them.

The strip down commenced :-

The original rear bearing cup. Scratches and pickup marks can be seen on the original image but not sure if they are visible at web resolution. I would have taken more images had my hands not been covered in oil. Plus I kept forgetting.

The front bearing cup (which is the larger of the 2) Each bearing type has 2 designation numbers. One for the actual bearing and the other for the cup type. The 'B' on the cup denotes that it has a flange.

The spindle and the bearings removed. The bearings and the cups while not coming away from their mating parts too easily were not thankfully a major problem.

The new cups in their locations. – Keeping everything spotlessly clean now became paramount.

The old bearings.

The rear one seemed to be in worst condition to the front. But neither 'Looked' to be that drastic. However a notchiness could be felt in both of them.

I have now got the machine back together and it's the critical pre-load time. I did not have a hook spanner of the correct size but the one I have for adjusting my motorbike rear suspension fitted after it had taken a little trip to the grinder.

Cont ………………..

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Thanks guy's,

There is a magnet in there. It says so in my 3rd post.

But cheers anyway.

Nick